The present invention relates to plastic bags suitable for use by a consumer for packaging produce, including, for example, vegetables and fruit, and in particular the invention relates to an improved produce bag dispensing system.
Produce bags are typically dispensed from rolls positioned in the produce area of a supermarket. Consumers remove the produce bags from the rolls to package produce items they have selected, protecting the produce from dirt and retaining the produce together in the cart. The material of the produce bag is light enough to allow the produce to be weighed in the produce bag at checkout.
Typically, plastic bags for produce are smaller than other plastic bags and made of lighter material. The produce bags are manufactured from an extruded tube of plastic, such as polyethylene, that is heat-sealed and perforated at spaced intervals along the length of the tube. The tube is then rolled into a cardboard form that is suspended on an axle near the produce. Each bag is individually unrolled from the roll, then removed from the other bags of the roll by tearing the bag away along the perforations.
Such a dispensing system is not always satisfactory. A consumer who is holding produce, may need to put the produce down to have both hands free to separate the bag at the perforation, one hand being used to stabilize the roll and the other hand to pull on the bag to be removed. Attempts to separate the produce bags using one hand by a rapid jerk will often fail to fully separate the perforation causing an unrolling of the roll onto the floor, wasting or dirtying of the produce bags.